Let's Talk Interstellar Shipping - Dune Imperium Advanced Strategy: Rise of IX

Talking about the shipping meta and how to play against it.

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[alexp]

This guy is the gothamchess of dune imperium

[defox]

I definietly feel like shipping is overrated. I've had huge successes with just smuggling twice and getting enough money for swordmaster, then ignoring it all together. By huge I mean I've won like 4 games out of 8, which is not bad.

smuggling is really good almost for anyone because it gets you swordmaster. shipping is tricky. you are at 0 on shipping and you ship up to 2. then you usually can only go there like after 2 turns because it's blocked. even if you go shipping -> next turn smuggling and collect, thats a TWO turns which costs TWO actions as well and thats a lot (if you are not blocked that is, then its even longer to reap the rewards).

with that two actions you could've gone to faction spaces, got some rewards and a whole friendship VP. but of course faction access is very limited after Seek Allies so getting the bumps from shipping is greal value.

the -2 tech buying is very situational and its an even longer commitment, so lets just talk about 1 and 2. getting the bump anywhere is great, always great. the two troops, eeeh its great, but you can't deploy them (looking at Hardy Warriors), you can just stock up. the two spice is nothing major, you can get that at Imperial and even deploy some troops with it. the only thing that stands out is the 5/1 solari. this is the best place to get your money, but everyone else gets 1 solari. I'm sure that everyone had many games where you didn't collect the money to stop someone elses swordmaster or to not allow Leto mentat.

shipping is only bad if its monopolized by one player. if they can go like 3-4 turns uninterrupted shipping, then the game is kind of over. but if you have people fighting for it, then its all good, its not bad. as I've said I had outstanding successes by just smuggling twice, getting some spare change from somewhere and swordmastering as early as possible.

I think the 2nd should just give one troop, then it would be fine. irl we are already trying to homebrew it wtih the Hollyboss changes.

[Gethrag]

Its obvious the shipping track is valuable, but what is not obvious to me is when a player should go up and down the track in the same turn (such as to collect 5 solari), or if its better overall value to go to the 2nd space and collect on a future turn. Is it just situational or do the best players always push to 2 or 3 before collecting?

[benjaminvliegenthart]

Just recently "discovered" your channel and instantly hooked. Great content!
Could you please elaborate a bit on the "points" given to the spaces in this video? I'm not familiar with these gradings. Thank you and keep up the good work!